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By BEN FELLER, AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller, Ap White House
Correspondent 1 hr 31 mins ago
WASHINGTON Preparing for political life after a bruising election, President
Barack Obama will put greater emphasis on fiscal discipline, a nod to a nation
sick of spending and to a Congress poised to become more Republican,
conservative and determined to stop him.
He is already giving clues about how he will govern in the last two years of
his term.
Obama will try to make gains on deficit reduction, education and energy. He
will enforce his health care and financial overhauls and try to protect them
from repeal should Republicans win control of Capitol Hill. He will use
executive authority when blocked by Congress, and steel for scrutiny and
investigations if the GOP is in charge.
While trying to save money, Obama will have to decide whether to bend to
Republican and growing Democratic pressure to extend Bush-era tax cuts, even
for the wealthy, that expire at year's end. Obama wants to extend them for
people making less than $200,000 and married couples making less than $250,000,
but a broader extension is gaining favor with an increasing number of
Democrats.
Moving to the fore will be a more serious focus on how to balance the federal
budget and pay for the programs that keep sinking the country into debt.
In other times, that discussion might seem like dry, Washington talk. Not now.
People are fed up with federal spending, particularly as many remain jobless.
The White House refuses to talk about how the president will have to adjust his
style or goals if power in Congress tilts right, for fear of undermining what
Obama is still campaigning hard to do: keeping Democrats in power. There is no
conceding as Obama recruits voters and rallies supporters all the way to Nov.
2.
Yet if polls and analysts are on target, Republicans are poised to win big,
possibly taking control of the House and gaining seats in the Senate, where
Obama's party already lacks the votes to overcome bill-killing delay tactics.
Obama probably will operate in an environment with even fewer moderate
Republicans.
The president has signaled that at the start of the new year, he will speak
more directly to the country about the financial choices ahead. "If we're going
to get serious about the deficit, then we're going to have to look at
everything: entitlements, defense spending, revenues. ... And that's going to
be a tough conversation," he said.
It's one that will be framed by a bipartisan debt commission, whose ideas this
December will give Obama political cover on where to suggest unpopular cuts.
Obama says the most frustrating part of his presidency is that he had to keep
spending money and adding to the deficit in his first six months in office "to
save the economy." He has from the start called deficit reduction a goal, but
one that had to get bumped in favor of sparking the economy.
Almost 60 percent of likely voters now say cutting the yearly budget shortfall
is the priority, even if that means the government can't spend on new education
programs, develop alternative energy sources or enact his health care overhaul
or alternative energy policies, an Associated Press-GfK poll found.
Obama defends the huge economic stimulus plan and the bailout of U.S.
automakers, and doesn't blame people for getting tired of all the spending. But
he does accuse Republicans of showing a lack of genuineness about fixing the
systemic problems that have driven up the debt long before he won the White
House.
And there rests the true trouble.
Even though Obama and the Republicans ostensibly share the goals of reducing
debt and creating jobs, they disagree fundamentally on their approaches. That
problem appears to be worsened by the lack of a serious working relationship
among the leaders. If divided government simply leads to more division over the
budget and economy, newly empowered Republicans and a Democratic president
seeking re-election may both pay the price.
"It's going to be very hard to find common ground," said James Thurber, a
professor of government at American University. "To a certain extent, (Obama's)
strategy depends on the strategy of majority of the House, and what can be
found in the Senate, where's he's basically going to be deadlocked."
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio said if Obama and his team are
going to work with the new Congress, then they must accept the end of
government stimulus efforts as a means for creating jobs. Boehner and fellow
Republicans have outlined a plan for governing that includes deep spending cuts
and a repeal of Obama's health care law, among other changes. Boehner is likely
to ascend to House speaker if his party wins a majority.
"They're going to have to signal some kind of willingness to work with
Republicans to cut spending," Boehner told The Associated Press. "Cutting
government spending is what the American people want, and it's an approach
neither party has tried yet."
The federal deficit was a near-record $1.3 trillion for the just-completed
budget year.
Obama may succeed in getting Republican support for trade pacts on a new
education law that insists on school reforms. He will go for an immigration
overhaul and energy legislation, but have to accept smaller, piece-by-piece
results. Capping of greenhouse gas emissions, for one, seems to be going
nowhere.
"It's a very different reality for the president for the next two years, which
is not to say that nothing gets done," said Norman Ornstein, a political
scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. "Even in a rancorous and nasty
environment, it seems to me there may some areas of opportunity."
Either real compromise or political pressures may pull Obama and enough
Republicans together to get some priorities done. President Bill Clinton
managed to rebound and work with Republicans after they swept into office in
1994, teaming up on welfare and balanced-budget legislation.
Never to be ignored are the core Democrats who helped get Obama elected and
who, in some cases, are disgruntled about the pace of progress. "He's got to be
careful to manage his base," said Ann Crigler, a professor of political science
at the University of Southern California. "His election is going to start Nov.
3."